Half-Blood High
by Annabeth.WG.Chase-Jackson
Summary: Percy moves to Half Blood High, a private high school. Annabeth can't stand him. What happens when conflicted feelings come between our favorite not-yet-a-couple? Filled with drama, romance and humor. ON HIATUS (I'm so sorry).
1. New Kid

**So this is a new story I want to write. I know the Percabeth in high school is a huge cliche, but I'd like to try it. I'll try to make the characters as un-OOC as possible and I'll do my best to get the events in the correct order, but if I mess up, I'm sorry in advance...Well, here we go!**

 **Percy's POV**

I walked into Half-Blood High-weird name-my new school, all the students buzzing about. It was kind of weird that, despite it being a private school, there were no uniforms. On the website, it was apparently because they wanted "to let all children feel comfortable." I saw this curly-haired, Latino-looking kid walk up to me. He scanned me and grinned. "New kid?"

I smiled. "That obvious?"

"I know everyone here. Plus: new-ish backpack, no one walking with you, lost expression _and_ most of the girls looking at you like you're a piece of sizzling bacon? I'd say that's fairly apparent." Hm. I liked this kid. But I didn't notice the girls staring. I looked around and, indeed, they were watching. One girl gave me a flirty wave. I turned back to the boy.

"Well, then, you saved me the embarrassment of asking a stranger where the main office is." He grinned again.

"Name's Leo Valdez-also called 'Bad Boy Supreme' or 'Sexy Valdez' or even 'Hot Stuff'-mainly by the ladies."

A Cherokee-looking girl with uneven-cut brown hair, deep tanned skin and blue eyes came up to us. "You wish, Leo." Then she looked at me. "Hey! New kid?"

It was really that obvious? "Yup," Leo answered for me. "And this lovely lady is Piper McL-"

"I'm a junior. You?" she cut him off for some reason.

"Me too. I'm Percy. Percy Jackson."

"Where'd you move from?"

"Um, I was born in Brooklyn, but I just moved here to NYC."

"Let me guess-scholarship kid?" Leo asked.

"Leo! It's rude to assume things!" Piper chided him. He was right, though. My mom would never have been able to afford the school, but I got a full ride scholarship because of my swimming.

"No, that's fine. Yeah, I'm a 'scholarship kid.'" Piper turned back to me, looking at me with her green eyes. Wait, green? I thought they were blue! I watched as they slowly changed color-you couldn't tell unless you looked extremely closely.

She and Leo must've noticed where I was looking because Leo laughed and said, "Don't even try, man. Piper herself doesn't know what color her eyes are. They're like ka-lei-do-scopes," he said it as if he'd been practicing the word. "Did I say it right, Pipes?"

"I'm very proud of you, Leo," she rolled her eyes. More students began to leave the locker area and go to the classrooms.

"Oh, um, I think I'm getting late-I need to go see Mr. Brunner. Where's his office?"

"In the main office," Leo answered. Piper smacked the back of his head.

"Doofus. Chiron's office is in the main office _which_ ," she looked pointedly at Leo, "is just around that corner." She pointed.

"'Kay. Thanks!"

"You can sit with us at lunch, Percy! We'll find you!" Piper called as I walked away, her eyes now hazel.

...

I entered Mr. Brunner's room after 2 knocks. My eyes first landed on a tan girl with blonde hair curled like a princess's and blue eyes. She glared at me as soon as I came in. Sheesh. Then I saw Mr. Brunner, a middle-aged man in a wheelchair. He smiled warmly at me. "Ah, Percy Jackson. We've been waiting."

My cheeks turned red. "Sorry. I was, uh, talking to some friends in the hall. They directed me here."

"Hm. Well, classes are almost starting, so, Annabeth here can start showing you around right away," he gestured to the blonde girl. I noticed now that her eyes were actually grey, looking like the clouds before a storm.

"Ooh..kay." She got up with a sigh.

Mr. Brunner gave me my weekly schedule. "Let's go," Annabeth said, walking out the door. Wow. What's got her so worked up? Well, I _did_ waste 15 minutes of her morning, but-other than that?!

"So..." I awkwardly started, trying to make small talk. "Annabeth, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Either you're deaf, stupid or trying to chit chat. If Chiron _said_ my name's Annabeth, what else would it be?"

I blushed. "I'm both of the latter." At least she laughed. "My name's Percy."

"I know."

"I moved here from Brooklyn."

"I know."

"Um. I'm here on scholarship?"

"I know."

"Wow. Stalker much?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Chiron told me about you before asking me to show you around." She grabbed my schedule and went over it.

"Oh. So what else do you know about me?"

"Other than all that? You're here on scholarship due to your supposedly remarkable swimming skills, your real name's Perseus, your mom's name is Sally and you are 16 years old."

"Well, then. The 'telling you about me' part of the small talk is covered then. So let's move on to you. Your name is Annabeth..."

"Chase. Annabeth Chase."

"And? It's only fair that you tell me about yourself."

"Fine. If you must know, I'm here on scholarship, too-for my academics and architecture. I moved here from California when I was seven-the tan stayed-and I am also 16."

"So you're a junior, too?"

She gave me a look. " _No_ , I'm in 7th grade."

I glared at her. "Well, if you ask stupid questions, you're going to get stupid answers," she smirked. "Anyway, you were given almost the same schedule as I have, so I can help you around. Some of the electives, though, are different. Did you join any clubs?"

"Oh, yes, certainly. In the 20 minutes that I've been in this school, I was able to join swimming, art _and_ drama!" I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

She glared at me. "I'm sorry, Ms. Chase, but someone told me, 'If you ask stupid questions, you're going to get stupid answers.'"

"I thought maybe you would've joined online. But whatever. This is your locker." She abruptly stopped. "Mine's right next to yours. You put your books and binders in it."

"I know what a locker is."

"Really? I wasn't quite sure." I glared at her. This girl was getting on my nerves.

"Your first class is English. But I'll show you around the school first. All the classrooms have got numbers, and they're arranged in numerical order, more or less-that's numbers, just so you know-" I glared again "-so I'll take you to the gym and all." I followed her to the gym, library, horse riding stalls and all the other rooms, but what really caught my attention was the swimming pool. It was huge-perfect for races and such.

"This is the swimming pool-room 205. When you go to change, make sure you use the _boy's_ changing room. No one's in here, since the janitors are cleaning it up. It's really slippery." She walked on, talking and walking quickly. "Sometimes we use this for gym, but it's mainly for..." she trailed off. I followed her eyes and saw her looking at a boy through the window-I think he's a senior, maybe older. She was still walking, though slower, and she didn't see the puddle of water.

She gasped as she slipped, and she would've fallen had it not been for me. I caught her around the waist. She looked at me, her chest rising and falling rapidly due to her near-death experience. Okay, so maybe it wasn't near-death exactly, but still. I pulled her up and smirked. "Anyone tell you no running beside the pool, Ms. Chase?" She looked down and mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I said thanks. Now don't make me say it again or you'll regret it." She looked up and blushed. That's when I noticed the proximity and my arm still on her waist. She didn't ask me to remove it, but I did, scared that she was going to judo-flip me if I didn't. "Seaweed Brain," she muttered.

"What?"

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," she smirked. Oh...I get it. Very funny, Chase.

"Oh yeah? Well...you're such a Wise Girl!" She snickered.

"Is that supposed to be offensive?" Yeah, not my best efforts. But I was sticking to it.

"Well, then, would you prefer Wise As-"

"Wise Girl's fine," she said quickly. "All right, the tour's over. Let's head over to History."

"But I thought we had English first."

"Me showing you around took up a period, Seaweed Brain. It's History now." So we went to room 308, a blush on my cheeks.

...

I was on the beach with my mom. It was a sunset, the end of another beautiful day at Montauk. She smiled at me, her chocolate eyes crinkling at the edges. Then she poked me. What? She poked me again. "Percy!" she hissed.

Why would she hiss at me? "Percy!" she said again, more adamantly. Then she stomped on my foot.

"OW! Why'd you do that M-Annabeth?"

Annabeth looked at me exasperatedly. "History's over! Let's go to Science!" Oh. It was a dream.

After a moment of silence, Annabeth said, "You drool when you sleep." My hand went to the corner of my mouth, and, sure enough, there was a dry trail of drool.

"No I don't!" I lied.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Science was a bit more interesting than History-mainly because we were on Oceanography. Well, at least I didn't dro-I mean, sleep.

"Do you want to sit with my friends and I during lunch?" she asked, her face impassive.

"Oh, um, I met these two people in the hallway this morning, and I kinda told them I'd sit next to them," I said, "Sorry."

"That's fine. Follow me to get your food and then you're free. Well, for lunch period, anyway."

The lunch at HBH was awesome. I got cheese pizza, nachos, a small cup of peaches ('cause Annabeth insisted) and a dessert of key lime pie. Would you expect any less at a private school? "Okay. So, I can help you find your friends. What are their names?" Annabeth asked.

"Leo Valdez and Piper...something. I don't know her last name."

Her eyes widened. "No way! I guess you're stuck with me for lunch, too."

"Huh? I thought your name was Annabeth...and Piper has brown hair..."

She looked up as though praying to God with an exasperated look on her face. "You idiot! Those are my friends!"

"Oh..." I turned red and followed her to the table.

"YO Annie! New kid!" Leo greeted us.

"Don't call me that. Hey guys! Turns out you and Piper are the reason Percy here wasted 15 minutes of my life this morning," Annabeth said to Piper and Leo, grinning.

"Ooh, sorry Percy. I forgot that Annabeth was showing you around. I apologize for making you face her wrath," Piper winked with amber eyes. "Hey!" she exclaimed when Annabeth threw a french fry at her.

"Okay, so you know Leo and Piper, so let me introduce you to the others. This is Grover," she pointed to a curly-haired boy with a goatee wearing a Rasta cap who waved, "Juniper, his girlfriend," a pretty girl with a flower in her light brown hair smiled at me-a friendly smile, that is, "Silena," a brown-haired girl with blue eyes looked excitedly between me and Annabeth for some reason, "and Beckendorf, her boyfriend," a large, scary looking African American guy smiled, "Guys, this is Percy Jackson from Brooklyn."

"So, Percy, do you have a girlfriend?" Silena asked with a sly look.

I blushed. "N-no."

"A crush?"

"Not really."

"Perfect," she giggled and looked at Beckendorf. What? I looked over at Annabeth and saw that she was blushing, too.

"What was that all about?"

"N-nothing." In the 3 and a half hours that I've known Annabeth, she _never_ stutters. Hm.

Lunch was fun. Annabeth's friends were really friendly. Then it was time for-ugh-Math. All the numbers got mixed up. What's worse was I had Algebra 2, so it was numbers _and_ letters. I swear, whoever made up Algebra really hated dyslexic kids.

"How'd you get such nice friends, Annie? They must've run away from you when you met them."

She glared at me. "Do _not_ call me that. I can be nice, you know. When I want to be. I'll drop you off at Algebra 2 and pick you up after class."

"Wait, drop me off?"

"Yeah. I'm going to Calculus."

"SERIOUSLY? That's, like, college math, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard, you know."

"Well, not for those of us who can read," I muttered.

"What?"

"I have tons of trouble with math and language arts since I'm, er, dyslexic."

"Wow."

"What?"

"Um, not many people know this since I'm in AP classes, but I'm dyslexic, too. I just found a way to work with it. I can...um...help you if you'd like?" she looked uncertain.

"Uh, sure..." It was kind of awkward for a minute or two before we stopped in front of my class.

"Algebra, room 505. Pick you up later," she said.

"It's a date," I teased. Now I have a bruise on my arm.

"JEEZ!" I exclaimed, rubbing my arm where she punched me.

She smirked. "See you!" Annabeth went down the hall.

...

Algebra 2 was torture. Even though I was the new kid, Mrs. Dodds, the teacher, picked on me relentlessly. Thank the gods it was only a 45 minute class. As I was walking towards the door to meet Annabeth, a pretty girl with big blue eyes and platinum hair caught up to me.

"Hey. It's Percy, right?" she looked at me weirdly.

"Uh, yeah. And...you are?"

She looked disappointed but covered it up with a flirty smile. "Becca! Actually, Rebecca, but everyone calls me Becca. So you're new, huh?"

I resisted the urge to say, " _No_ , I've been here my whole life. That's why I was introduced as the new kid." Annabeth-as much as I hate to admit it-was rubbing off on me. "Yeah."

"Have you got a girlfriend?" What is it with people asking me that today?

"Uh, no." I saw Annabeth coming toward me.

"Well," she said, moving closer so that her, er, lady part touched my arm where Annabeth punched me, "I'm free this afternoon. Or whenever you want to...hang out." Okay, this was getting weird.

But before I could move away, Annabeth grabbed my other arm and said, "Sorry, Becca, but he's busy this afternoon."

"Well, well, Annabel," she giggled, obviously pleased with her rhyming. "How are you so sure?"

"I'm coming over." That got her attention. I swear I could hear her snarl as she stormed away. What was that all about? She's coming over?

"Thanks," I said to Annabeth.

"Whatever. Stay away from her; trust me, she'll drop you like a hot potato once she gets what she wants."

"Hm...someone jealous?" I said, earning me a glare and another bruise.

"You wish. Anyway, on to music class, new kid."

 **So that was a pretty long first chapter. I'm really excited about this story! The next chapter is probably going to be in Annabeth's _and_ Percy's POV. It'll probs be up maybe Monday? Er, 48 hours later. So since I have to start school again soon, I'll probably update once a week. SO tell me if you liked this chapter or not, please criticize constructively ;), advice on future chapters is much appreciated, and don't worry-there _will_ be drama soon. Thanks for reading!**

 **Song of the Day: I Hate U, I Love U by Gnash ft. Olivia O'Brien**


	2. New Kid: Annabeth POV

**Chapter 2 people! Annabeth's POV first. Oh, and, I forgot last chapter, so...Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any of the PJO or HOO characters.**

 **Annabeth**

I was sitting in Chiron's office, waiting for the new kid. I checked the clock. Ugh. He was already 15 minutes late-I don't think we're going to get along very well. Then, after two knocks on the door, a tall boy with messy raven-black hair came in. He had this gorgeous sea-green eyes I could see all the way from my seat. I swear my heart skipped a beat; thank the gods I was good at masking my emotions. "Ah, Percy Jackson. We've been waiting." His cheeks turned red.

"Sorry. I was, uh, talking to some friends in the hall. They directed me here," he said.

"Hm. Well, classes are almost starting, so, Annabeth here can start showing you around right away."

"Ooh...kay," I got up with a sigh. Just because he was cute didn't mean he could get away with wasting my morning that easily.

"So..." he awkwardly started, trying to make small talk. "Annabeth, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. "Either you're deaf, stupid or trying to chit chat. If Chiron _said_ my name's Annabeth, what else would it be?"

He blushed. "I'm both of the latter." I had to laugh. "My name's Percy."

"I know."

"I moved here from Brooklyn."

"I know."

"Um. I'm here on scholarship?"

"I know."

"Wow. Stalker much?"

I rolled my eyes. "Chiron told me about you before asking me to show you around." I grabbed his schedule and went over it.

"Oh. So what else do you know about me?"

"Other than all that? You're here on scholarship due to your supposedly remarkable swimming skills, your real name's Perseus, your mom's name is Sally and you are 16 years old."

"Well, then. The 'telling you about me' part of the small talk is covered then. So let's move on to you. Your name is Annabeth..."

"Chase. Annabeth Chase."

"And? It's only fair that you tell me about yourself."

"Fine. If you must know, I'm here on scholarship, too-for my academics and architecture. I moved here from California when I was seven-the tan stayed-and I am also 16."

"So you're a junior, too?"

He was being really stupid today. " _No_ , I'm in 7th grade."

He glared at me. "Well, if you ask stupid questions, you're going to get stupid answers," I smirked. "Anyway, you were given almost the same schedule as I have, so I can help you around. Some of the electives, though, are different. Did you join any clubs?"

"Oh, yes, certainly. In the 20 minutes that I've been in this school, I was able to join swimming, art _and_ drama!" He said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Guess it was his turn.

I glared at him. "I'm sorry, Ms. Chase, but someone told me, 'If you ask stupid questions, you're going to get stupid answers.'" He was right, you know.

"I thought maybe you would've joined online. But whatever. This is your locker." I abruptly stopped. "Mine's right next to yours. You put your books and binders in it."

"I know what a locker is."

"Really? I wasn't quite sure." Ha-HA!

"Your first class is English. But I'll show you around the school first. All the classrooms have got numbers, and they're arranged in numerical order, more or less-that's numbers, just so you know-" he glared again. "-so I'll take you to the gym and all." We got to our prized swimming pool.

"This is the swimming pool-room 205. When you go to change, make sure you use the _boy's_ changing room. No one's in here, since the janitors are cleaning it up. It's really slippery. Sometimes we use this for gym, but it's mainly for..." I trailed off, seeing Luke in the window. He was laughing and talking with some of his friends. He was older than me, yes, but he was still extremely cute. And he was kind and considerate to everyone.

I didn't notice that I was still walking, not paying attention to the floor. I gasped as I slipped, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I would've fallen if Percy had not caught me, his arm around my waist. I looked at him, and, for some reason, though I would've cut off anyone else's arm had it been there, but with him, it felt...good. Safe. Comforting. His green eyes looked into my grey ones, and it felt like this was a scene from a movie. What? No. I do _not_ have a crush on Percy Jackson.

 _Mhmm._ A little voice said.

What? I don't. I like Luke.

"Anyone tell you no running beside the pool, Ms. Chase?" Percy said. See? _That's_ why I don't _like_ like him.I looked down and mumbled "thanks."

"What was that?" He was seriously getting on my nerves.

"I said thanks. Now don't make me say it again or you'll regret it." I looked up and blushed. I didn't ask him to take his arm off of my waist, but he did, the warmth and comfort of his arm gone. Seriously, what was wrong with me? He was such a Seaweed Brain.

"What?" Oh. I said that out loud? Well, then.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," I smirked.

"Oh yeah? Well...you're such a Wise Girl!" I snickered.

"Is that supposed to be offensive?"

"Well, then, would you prefer Wise As-"

"Wise Girl's fine," I said quickly. "All right, the tour's over. Let's head over to History."

"But I thought we had English first."

"Me showing you around took up a period, Seaweed Brain. It's History now."

...

History, the Seaweed Brain slept. Science, he seemed interested for some reason. Oh, yeah; we were learning about Oceanography.

I introduced him to everyone at lunch.

I swear I could murder Silena if she wasn't so sweet and bubbly.

"So, Percy, do you have a girlfriend?" Silena asked with a sly look.

He blushed. "N-no."

"A crush?"

"Not really."

"Perfect," she giggled and looked at Beckendorf. What?

"What was that all about?"

"N-nothing." Silena was trying to pair me up with someone-but only people she thought would be perfect for me. And apparently, Percy's good looks won her over. Then it was time for math. I took mostly AP classes, and so I was going to Calculus, dropping Percy off at Algebra. On the way there, it was "confessions time" apparently. Percy told me he was dyslexic, I told Percy that _I_ was dyslexic as well.

Calculus was boring AF (I learned that from Silena's texting). I was actually relieved when I had to pick the Seaweed Brain up. But I saw Becca, popular girl, slut and best friend of Drew, queen bee of our school, brush up against Percy in a seductive manner I've seen her use on all the guys. Oh, no. If he was with her any more, he'd be wrapped around her little finger.

"Sorry, Becca, but he's busy this afternoon."

"Well, well, Annabel," she giggled, obviously pleased with her rhyming. "How are you so sure?"

"I'm coming over." It wasn't a lie. I was coming over-I think. I told Percy I'd help him with Algebra 2. She snarled and stormed away.

"Thanks," he said.

"Whatever. Stay away from her; trust me, she'll drop you like a hot potato once she gets what she wants."

"Hm...someone jealous?" he said. I glared at him and punched his arm.

"You wish. Anyway, on to music class, new kid."

 **So they don't really like each other. But they will soon enough!**

 **Thank you guys sooooo much for 277 views! I have high hopes for this story!**

 **Go checkout my other stories, too! And for those of you who are looking for more Percabeth AUs, read:**

 **Forgotten Paradise by Average Canadian**

 **playing the player by day dreaming dreamer (And basically all of his/her stories)**

 **Song of the Day: Heathens by Twenty-One Pilots**


	3. The Park

**OMG guys I'm so so so so so so so soooooo sorry for not updating in over 2 months! I've had a lot of stuff going on in my life right now; I moved COUNTRIES (back to America, which I love) and some other personal issues. I also have been dealing with writer's block, so I hope this chapter won't suck too much. And reread the other stories because I updated them!**

 _1 week later_

 **Annabeth**

"Please, Annabeth?"

"No."

"Pleaaassse?"

"NO."

"Pretty please with a blue cherry on top?!" Oh, gods, no. Not the puppy eyes. Look away, Annabeth, _Look. Away._

"I said N-wait, a blue cherry?"

"I'll explain later. But why not?!"

"Because, Seaweed Brain, we've been to the park literally 10 times. And we've known each other for 7 days! So no. We are going to do something different."

Our friends were watching, amused, while Percy and I were squabbling on what to do.

"Guys. GUYS!" Grover intervened. Our attention snapped to the ginger in yet another different Rasta cap. How many of those does he have?! "Percy, no park. Annabeth's right. That's basically the only place we go-" cue pathetic pout from Percy "-so I have an idea. Let's all write on a slip of paper where we want to go and/or what we want to do, and pick a random one out of a bowl. The one that's drawn is the one we listen to."

"That's too much work," Percy stretched back on the couch.

I elbowed his side, "Lazy ass."

He tugged on a rebel curl that escaped from my ponytail, "Wise ass."

"That supposed to be an insult, Kelp Head?"

"Yo-Annabeth," Piper interrupted, flicking a folded-up paper at me. I threw her a puzzled look before unfolding it.

 _You're so into him._

I glared at her and mouthed _yeah right._ She just smirked knowingly and wrote on another slip of paper, that one being her entry into the "activity draw." I rolled my eyes and wrote on my own slip.

 _Walking downtown_."What'd you write, Wise Girl?"

I set the paper aside and looked up at Percy. "Wouldn't you like to know."

His green eyes looked confused. "Well, yeah. That's...why I asked."

I rolled my eyes. "It's an expression, Seaweed Brain. It basically means that I'm not telling."

"Well why didn't you just say that then?"

"PERC- you know what? I'm just going to pretend this last minute never happened."

"Oooookay okay okay! The much-awaited time has come! Ladies and gentleman, place your slips in this round glass bowl and we will pick one that will determine our activity of the evening!" Leo announced dramatically. I dropped mine in first and sat back down.

After collecting all of them, Leo wriggled his fingers, moved his hand around a bit and grabbed a slip. He slowly raised it up to his face. "PRIMROSE EVERDEEN!" He fell on the floor, cracking up even as Piper kicked him. "ALRIGHT! For realsies now-" I raised an eyebrow at his choice of words "-Our activity IS- you're...so into him?"

Oh crap. Crap crap crap. I frantically picked up the slip next to me. _Walking downtown_ it read. My face heated up. Piper burst out laughing, while everyone else looked confused.

"This isn't an activity! Someone's been passing notes." Leo looked around, "Annabeth has an extra slip! Annabeth's been a naughty girl. But the _real_ question is...who was she passing this to OR who...passed it to her?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Leo, just pick another one," Hazel said, and I could've kissed her.

"Whatever. I'll figure this out later," he said. "Our _real_ activity is...going to the...perk. What? Going to the perk?"

"YES!" Percy jumped up. "HA, Annabeth! The park it is."

And so we started walking.

...

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," I nudged Percy.

"Yeah, Annabeth?"

"'bout that blue cherry?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, when I was younger, this...guy said there was no such thing as blue food, so my mom dyed our food blue just to get back at him. Ever since, it's been our thing," he explained, but something was different in his voice, as if he was keeping something out.

"Oh. That's nice. It's pretty cool to have a family tradition sorta thing." My family doesn't do that kind of stuff.

"I guess."

And that was the end of our conversation.

Piper walked over to me. "I wasn't kidding with that note."

"Yeah right, Pipes. He's so annoying and kind of full of himself."

"I think your brain is wired to not romantically like anyone, so it automatically switches to hate mode and replaces the 'love' with 'hate,' therefore making you believe you don't like him at all when you really do, it's just your brain masking it."

I blinked. "Oookaay...when did you get all fake-science-y?"

She rolled her emerald eyes. "Wait and you'll see, Annie," she said, using my least favorite nickname, "You might hate him now, but I can sense these kind of things."

"You should be a love therapist."

"Is that a thing?"

"Maybe."

"Then maybe."

She kept quiet after that, letting me drown in my own thoughts. Piper's love/hate theory was ridiculous, I knew that, but I couldn't help thinking about. Then again, even if it were slightly true, I wouldn't have a crush on Luke. And besides, Percy was so annoying. There isn't the slightest possibility that I could like him. I only hung out with him because he was the new kid and he made friends with my friends. It's not like I would voluntarily hang out with him alone. Sure he had deep sea-green eyes that you could get lost in, yeah he's literally tall, dark and handsome. But looks aren't everything. Besides, I was the blonde-hair blue-eyes kinda gal. Even if there are rumors that the certain person I was thinking of was a "player." But that's all that they were. Rumors.

...

The park was fine. The usual. Percy came over to annoy me every once in a while, but I spent most of my time with Piper, Hazel and Juniper. Mainly Piper though. Juniper was all giggly over Grover, and Frank was all stutter-y over Hazel. Piper and I were All the Single Ladies. Sad, but true.

Hazel was the first to leave. "I need to go, guys. I'm helping my mom move the stuff into the new house."

"I-I'll walk you home, Hazel!" Frank said, blushing.

"Oh, you don't need to do that."

"No, it's fine. My pleasure."

A goofy grin was on my face looking at these two. They're obviously crushing on each other, but neither can work up the nerve to ask the other out.

"I think I'll be heading home, too, guys. I have to water my plants and I'm getting hungry," said Juniper, blushing when Grover offered to come with her. It's obviously not just to protect her, not like he can do that with crutches, no offense to him at all.

So it was just Piper, Percy and I.

"Well, then," Percy said.

Piper looked weirdly between us two. "Um...I just remembered. I need to...rearrange my closet. Bye!" She hurried off, looking back with a smirk.

And I was alone with the Seaweed Brain.

"So. We're all alone...together...no one else here...What do you want to do?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Keep dreaming. I'm gonna head off."

"Aw, come on, Wise Girl. I'm sure we could have a lot of fun together."

"Gross. Bye."

"Well shouldn't I walk you home? It's the gentlemanly thing to do."

"You didn't walk Piper home, and when have _you_ ever been 'gentlemanly?'"

"Ah, she's a tough girl. She can handle herself. And I'm being gentlemanly right now, see?"

"Excuse me? You saying I can't handle myself? Take that back. Take it back right now unless you want to be singing soprano for the rest of the week." He gulped.

"Whatever. I'm walking you home and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Ugh! Fine. But stay 5 meters away from me at all times."

"We're in America, Annabeth. Speak American."

"The metric system is simpler. But whatever; 5 meters is roughly 15 feet." I started walking.

About 3 minutes of silence later, Percy interrupted. "Hey Annabeth?"

"What is it, Seaweed Brain?"

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"What's it to you?"

"I was just being polite..." he muttered.

I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me. "2 twin brothers. Bobby and Matthew. Any more questions?"

"Um...no."

After another 3 minutes of silence, I realized it was strange for him to be quiet. "You better not be staring at my ass, Jackson." I looked back and caught him blushing.

"Course not. Who'd do that?"

I rolled my eyes but my cheeks were a dusty pink. "Well, this is my stop. Er...thanks for walking me home," I mustered up my courage and added, trying to sound cocky, "And you're welcome for the view."

That did it. He was a red stammering mess. "W-whatever. I'll see you, er, t-tomorrow?"

I smirked. "I guess. Try looking at my face next time." He turned redder if humanely possible and left, scratching his head. He looked back, and, when he saw I was watching him, snapped his head back and kept walking. I could see him smacking his head and snickered.

Though I'd never admit it out loud, I may not _like_ like him, but maybe he was warming up to me.

 **So so so sorry again. I'll try and update. I hope this chapter was a sufficient apology! I really like the idea of them not liking each other first. Review please!**

 **Song of the Day:**

 **Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur**


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